their cooperation with the government and local authorities, trade unions, their
associations and other associations of citizens.
Despite constitutional entrenchment of provisions on freedom of association,
trade unions are in crisis under the currect conditions. In particular, it is proved by the
reduced number of union members, cutting back on their rights under the new draft
Labour Code, limiting their rights under the existing law (loss of legislative initiative,
actual suspension of unions’ technical labour inspection, restriction of trade unions’
rights in the procedure of identifying an accident as the one related to production etc),
increasing violations of trade union rights [7, p. 5-6]. Thus, according to the human
rights organisations data in Ukraine there is a number of problems that are closely
related to exercising the right to freedom of association into trade unions: problems
with state registration; problems with the trade unions’ implementation of their
functions; various pressures from employers onto the trade unions’ founders and
members [8, p. 246].
The reason for these problems, among others, is a non-compliance of certain
national labour laws provisions with international labour standards. In particular, there
is a need for introduction of the general rule regarding prohibition of employer’s
interference with trade unions’ activities and prohibition of any discrimination of
freedom of association in the field of labour, contained in Art. 1 and Art. 2 of the ILO
Convention on the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining (1949) № 98.
There is a need to bring in accordance with international labour standards those
provisions of current legislation which ensure not only employees’ rights but also those
of employers to freedom of association for defending their rights and interests, which
correspondes to international documents according to which the right of association
should be equally provided both to workers and to employers (Art. 5 of the ILO The
Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention (1948) No
87.
Moreover, we completely agree with O. G. Sereda in that the provisions of para.
3, 4 of Art. 4 of the Ukrainian Law on Employers' Organisations containing
requirements regarding the name of employers’ organisations and its use do not fully
comply with the provisions of the ILO Convention No 87, ratified by Ukraine back in
1957, and worsen the current situation of business associations whose members are
employers, in part of confirmation of their status, and, therefore, should be brought into
line with international labour standards [9, p. 177].
According to international labour standards the right to collective bargaining for
the purpose of signing collective agreements and the right to strike are seen as elements
of freedom of association into trade unions and as manifestation of the principle of
freedom of association and real recognition of the right to collective bargaining. The
aim of ILO Convention on the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining (1949) №
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